What has your experience been with triplod grass carp?
My former young neighbors, who own 75% of our pond, got three carp legally from the NYDEC and stocked the pond. The fish eat only aquatic vegetation, are sterile but get to be huge and live for 15 years or so. I can’t see them but the water surface is clear so assume they are in there. Should I and the new neighbors, folks in their late sixties, be concerned?
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Our very own Lock Ness Monsters: viewing may cause nightmares.
Carp
Why would you be concerned? They’re carp, they don’t move very fast, they don’t have a taste for flesh. But they don’t taste that good. Most of the info I’ve seen on them is that they’re good at what they’re supposed to do, which is control vegetation.
I have two of them in my pond. The DEC insists you have two or more – never only one.
You will not see them for the first year or two but they will be there, swimming in pairs, slowly cruising around the pond like aquatic roombas – growing at a rate of 6 inches to a foot per year!!! By the third year you will see them moving like submarines in formation.
At 4 years they do begin to look scary. Big and scary. But, supposedly, they are not aggressive and only eat vegetation. After a few years, when the pond vegetation is eliminated they will start grabbing the grass and weeds growing on the outside of the pond!
Now that is creepy!
you want them there. They are happy fish and are your friends.
Why do they require two or more?
Apparently they are social creatures and like company. They do not survive alone.
If one dies you call the DEC and they will give you another (if I recall, at no charge.)
Interesting. They must be somewhat social.
When they swim, they generally do it right next to each other. You can see them occasionally touching as they move. They are either XXY or XYY (I can’t remember.) and cannot reproduce but it is obvious they like the company.
They do not bother my large mouth bass.
They are enjoying themselves, leave them alone.
Carpe Diem
If anything, they can be too effective and eliminate habitat for fry and other small invertebrates.
@syz There is no doubt they eliminate habitat. The pond turned “clean” after about 4 years. Again, supposedly, they reach a stable point. If I recall, 0.1 acre was the minimum and that would support 2 carp (the minimum.) They had a rule that was something like “One additional carp per 0.1 or 0.2 acres.”
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